This article, an introduction to a compedium dedicated to the life of Alfred E. Kahn, reviews his academic research and policy interests and how they evolved, his activities as a regulator and advisor to governments and companies, and the interactions between his real-world experiences and his...

Three states recently introduced Universal Pre-Kindergarten programs offering free preschool to all age-eligible children; policy makers in many other states are promoting similar programs. Using restricted-access data from the Census, together with year and birthday based eligibility cutoffs, I...

This paper assesses the relative effectiveness of central bank independence versus policy rules for the policy instruments in bringing about good economic performance. It examines historical changes in (1) macroeconomic performance, (2) the adherence to rules-based monetary policy, and (3) the...

In historical perspective, both the nature of and arrangements for the generation of engineering knowledge have evolved over the past 150 years. We examine the historical development of the search for ‘useful knowledge’ in agriculture, aeronautics and chemical engineering during the first...

Many believe that “big data” will transform business, government and other aspects of the economy. In this article we discuss how new data may impact economic policy and economic research. Large-scale administrative datasets and proprietary private sector data can greatly improve the way we...

We use data from the National Incidence-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to examine how the probability of getting caught when committing a crime, proxied by ambient daylight, impacts criminal activity. We exploit the existence of daylight saving time (DST) to provide within-hour exogenous shock...

Abstract: This review article tries to answer four questions: (i) what are the stylized facts about uncertainty over time; (ii) why does uncertainty vary; (iii) do fluctuations in uncertainty matter; and (iv) did higher uncertainty worsen the Great Recession of 2007-2009? On the first question...

Patent pools are agreements by multiple patent owners to license certain patents to third parties as a package, and often in conjunction with the development of a technological standard. A key distinction made by regulators—between patents essential to a standard and patents that are suitable...

We use evidence from worker turnover following M&A events to show that workers’ choices to leave the firm depend on changes in workers’ relative standing, or status, in terms of wage and rank. Our results show that social, rather than pecuniary, preference drives these choices. We also show...